Egypt
PNAS
Available free of charge in PDF format.
Isla S. Castañedaa,
Stefan Mulitzab,
Enno Schefußb,
Raquel A. Lopes dos Santosa,
Jaap S. Sinninghe Damstéa and
Stefan Schoutena
Abstract
- News: Stone Age Humans Crossed Sahara In The Rain
New Scientist (Jeff Hecht) Wet spells in the Sahara may have opened the door for early human migration. According to new evidence, water-dependent trees and shrubs grew there between 120,000 and 45,000 years ago. This suggests that changes in the weather...
- More Re Out Of Africa Via Wet Sahara
Science Now (Michael Balter) Modern humans arose in sub-Saharan Africa as early as 200,000 years ago, but our species did not venture beyond Africa until at least 80,000 years later. Just why they took so long to travel north is not clear, but many researchers...
- Out Of Africa - A New Route?
Science Daily The widely held belief that the Nile valley was the most likely route out of sub-Saharan Africa for early modern humans 120,000 year ago is challenged in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A team led by the...
- More Re Drying Of The Sahara
Scientific American In a finding that may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change, research published in Science shows how the Sahara Desert, a region as big as the U.S. that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea across northern...
- Migration Of Early Humans Aided By Wet Weather
Science Daily The African origin of early modern humans 200,000--150,000 years ago is now well documented, with archaeological data suggesting that a major migration from tropical east Africa to the Levant took place between 130,000 and 100,000 years...
Egypt
More re greening of the Sahara - the full article
PNAS
Available free of charge in PDF format.
Wet phases in the Sahara/Sahel region and human migration patterns in North Africa
Isla S. Castañedaa,
Stefan Mulitzab,
Enno Schefußb,
Raquel A. Lopes dos Santosa,
Jaap S. Sinninghe Damstéa and
Stefan Schoutena
Abstract
The carbon isotopic composition of individual plant leaf waxes (a proxy for C3 vs. C4 vegetation) in a marine sediment core collected from beneath the plume of Sahara-derived dust in northwest Africa reveals three periods during the past 192,000 years when the central Sahara/Sahel contained C3 plants (likely trees), indicating substantially wetter conditions than at present. Our data suggest that variability in the strength of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is a main control on vegetation distribution in central North Africa, and we note expansions of C3 vegetation during the African Humid Period (early Holocene) and within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (≈50–45 ka) and MIS 5 (≈120–110 ka). The wet periods within MIS 3 and 5 coincide with major human migration events out of sub-Saharan Africa. Our results thus suggest that changes in AMOC influenced North African climate and, at times, contributed to amenable conditions in the central Sahara/Sahel, allowing humans to cross this otherwise inhospitable region.
- News: Stone Age Humans Crossed Sahara In The Rain
New Scientist (Jeff Hecht) Wet spells in the Sahara may have opened the door for early human migration. According to new evidence, water-dependent trees and shrubs grew there between 120,000 and 45,000 years ago. This suggests that changes in the weather...
- More Re Out Of Africa Via Wet Sahara
Science Now (Michael Balter) Modern humans arose in sub-Saharan Africa as early as 200,000 years ago, but our species did not venture beyond Africa until at least 80,000 years later. Just why they took so long to travel north is not clear, but many researchers...
- Out Of Africa - A New Route?
Science Daily The widely held belief that the Nile valley was the most likely route out of sub-Saharan Africa for early modern humans 120,000 year ago is challenged in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A team led by the...
- More Re Drying Of The Sahara
Scientific American In a finding that may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change, research published in Science shows how the Sahara Desert, a region as big as the U.S. that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea across northern...
- Migration Of Early Humans Aided By Wet Weather
Science Daily The African origin of early modern humans 200,000--150,000 years ago is now well documented, with archaeological data suggesting that a major migration from tropical east Africa to the Levant took place between 130,000 and 100,000 years...